Overview

Combined with the sexual revolution and the feminist movement of the 1960s, the counterculture helped establish a climate that fostered the struggle for gay and lesbian rights. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people and their allies have a long history of campaigning for what is generally called LGBT rights. Various communities have worked together, but also have worked independently of each other, in various configurations including gay liberation, lesbian feminism, the queer movement, and transgender activism. 

Early Groups

Even in a time of unprecedented societal change and burgeoning liberal views and policies, homosexuality was still widely publicly stigmatized throughout the 20th century. More often than not, it was seen as a malaise or mental illness instead of a legitimate sexual orientation. Indeed, throughout the 1950s and 1960s, the overriding opinion of the medical establishment was that homosexuality was a developmental maladjustment.

The Homophile Movement, 1945-1968

Immediately following World War II, a number of homosexual rights groups came into being or were revived in the United States. These groups usually preferred the term "homophile" to "homosexual", emphasizing love over sex. The homophile movement has been described as politically conservative, although their calls for social acceptance of same-sex love were seen as radical views at the time.

The homophile movement lobbied to establish a prominent influence in political systems of social acceptability; radicals of the 1970s would later disparage the homophile groups for trying to assimilate into mainstream culture rather than being proud of their differences. Any demonstrations were orderly and polite. By 1969, there were dozens of homophile organizations and publications in the U.S, and a national organization had been formed; however, they were largely ignored by the media.

The Mattachine Society and the Daughters of Bilitis

Many gay rights groups were founded in Los Angeles and San Francisco, cities that were administrative centers in the network of U.S. military installations and the places where many gay men suffered dishonorable discharges. The first postwar organization for homosexual civil rights, the Mattachine Society, was launched in Los Angeles in 1950. Their objectives were to unify gay people and provide them with education, leadership, and legal assistance. They reasoned that they would change more minds about homosexuality by proving that gays and lesbians were no different from heterosexuals. Soon after, several women in San Francisco met in their living rooms to form the Daughters of Bilitis (DOB) for lesbians, and as the DOB grew they developed similar goals to the Mattachine, urging their members to assimilate into general society. In 1966, the city became home to the world’s first organization for transsexual people, the National Transsexual Counseling Unit, and in 1967, the Sexual Freedom League of San Francisco was born. Through these organizations and others, gay and lesbian activists fought against the criminalization and discrimination of their sexual identities on a number of occasions throughout the 1960s, employing strategies of both protests and litigation. 

Lesbian Groups and Lesbian Feminism

Lesbian feminism emerged around the same time that gay liberation groups were forming. Many women of the gay liberation movement felt frustrated at the domination of the movement by men and formed separate organizations. Disagreements between different political philosophies were, at times, extremely heated, clashing in particular over views on sadomasochism, prostitution and transsexuality.

1969: Resistance at Stonewall 

The most famous event in the gay rights movement took place not in San Francisco but in New York City. Early in the morning of June 28, 1969, police raided a Greenwich Village gay bar called the Stonewall Inn. Although such raids and violence at the hands of police were common, on this particular night the Stonewall patrons put up a fierce resistance. As the police prepared to arrest many of the customers, especially transgender women and cross-dressers who were particular targets for police harassment, a crowd began to gather. Angered by the brutal treatment of the prisoners, the crowd attacked, led by transgender women of color Marsha P. Johnson and Silvia Rivera. Beer bottles and bricks were thrown, and the police barricaded themselves inside the bar and waited for reinforcements. The riot continued for several hours and resumed the following night. 

The resistance at Stonewall is frequently cited as the first instance in American history when people in the LGBT community fought back against a government-sponsored system that persecuted sexual and gender minorities. Shortly thereafter, the Gay Liberation Front and Gay Activists’ Alliance were formed and began to protest discrimination, homophobia, and violence against gay and transgender people, promoting LGBT liberation and pride. While some of the early leaders of the movement were transgender and non-binary people, these gender identities were often eclipsed by the fight for gay and lesbian rights, and it would take several more decades before transgender rights would make headway. 

Stonewall Inn

Photograph of the Stonewall Inn, taken September 1969. The sign in the window reads: "We homosexuals plead with our people to please help maintain peaceful and quiet conduct on the streets of the Village. "

The Movement Grows

With a call for gay men and women to “come out”—a consciousness-raising campaign that shared many principles with the counterculture—gay and lesbian communities moved from the urban underground into the political sphere. Gay rights activists protested strongly against the official position of the American Psychiatric Association (APA), which categorized homosexuality as a mental illness and often resulted in job loss, loss of custody, and other serious personal consequences. By 1974, the APA had ceased to classify homosexuality as a form of mental illness but continued to consider it a “sexual orientation disturbance.” Nevertheless, in 1974, Kathy Kozachenko became the first openly lesbian woman voted into office in Ann Arbor, Michigan. In 1977, Harvey Milk became California’s first openly gay man elected to public office, although his service on San Francisco’s board of supervisors, along with that of San Francisco mayor George Moscone, was cut short when he was killed by disgruntled former city supervisor Dan White.

By the summer of 1970, groups in at least eight American cities were sufficiently organized to schedule simultaneous events commemorating the Stonewall riots for the last Sunday in June. The events varied from a highly political march of three to five thousand in New York and thousands more at parades in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Chicago. On June 28, 1970, the first Gay Pride marches took place in Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York commemorating the anniversary of the riots. Similar marches were organized in other cities. Today, LGBTQ Pride events are held annually throughout the world toward the end of June to commemorate the Stonewall riots.

Gay Rights Demonstration

Gay rights demonstration in New York City, 1976. By the late 1960s, cities across the country held gay rights demonstrations to oppose discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.